News from Maine Sea Grant | Winter 2017
In Memoriam
All of us at Maine Sea Grant are mourning the loss of several members of Maine’s environmental science community. Bigelow Laboratory Executive Director Graham Shimmield, who helped guide our programming through his participation on our Policy Advisory Committee, passed away in December. We also will miss Bill Townsend, a longtime advocate for clean water and protector of Maine rivers; Brian Robinson, Sea Grant researcher and archaeologist who helped expand our understanding of the human history of the coastal landscape; and Gordon Hamilton, a researcher with the UMaine Climate Change Institute. Our condolences to their families, friends, and colleagues.
EDUCATION HIGHLIGHTS
NOAA just released an amended funding opportunity for the Knauss fellowships, which includes an increase in the individual fellowship budgets, a two-week delay in the application deadline, and a few other changes. Additional funding opportunities are available for students and recent graduates. Sara Randall has joined the Signs of the Seasons team as assistant coordinator. Signs of the Seasons hosted a Northeast phenology workshop in November. Read the report here.
EXTENSION HIGHLIGHTS
The Maine Sea Grant College Program invites preliminary proposals for research and synthesis projects to be funded in the period February 2018 through January 2020. Through this new request, we seek proposals of two separate categories. First, we seek to fund research proposals that link the scientific capacity of Maine with the needs of coastal stakeholders. Second, we aim to support synthesis efforts that will integrate knowledge from diverse sources to summarize our current understanding of coastal Maine issues, identify gaps in knowledge, and outline future research directions. Synthesis efforts should not include the collection of new data. Assuming no changes in the federal Sea Grant appropriation and the requirements of the non-research components of the Maine Sea Grant program, an estimated $750,000 will be available to support research projects over the two-year funding period. Maine Sea Grant will consider funding proposals from $50,000 to $150,000. Maine Sea Grant intends to fund as many excellent proposals as is possible within budgetary constraints; projects with requested funding below the maximum amount and those that show strong leveraging of funding are encouraged. Due to Maine Sea Grant’s limited resources, total two-year requests over $150,000 in Sea Grant funds (including all direct and indirect costs) will not be considered. Sea Grant funding requires a 50% non-federal match; all preliminary proposals must indicate source and level of available non-federal match. Proposals without sufficient match will not be considered. Preliminary proposals are due Friday, February 24, 2017. Maine Sea Grant is administered by the University of Maine, but the research competition is open to faculty and staff at any public or private research or higher education institution in the state. For further details, guidelines, and forms, visit seagrant.umaine.edu/funding/re
PUBLICATIONS & SEA GRANT IN THE NEWS
Attention Writers! The Catch: Writings from Downeast Maine is now accepting submissions of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for Volume V. Learn more and submit online at catchjournal.org. Also, our friends at Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance have a full slate of writing workshops scheduled for this winter and spring. 23 January | From frog fungus to smashed dams: Maine science journalism and the (messed up) food chain of news, Mitchell Center Seminar with author and journalist Murray Carpenter | Orono, ME 2-4 March | Maine Fishermen’s Forum | Rockport, ME 16-19 March | Maine Science Festival | Bangor, ME 30 March | Maine Sustainability & Water Conference | Augusta, ME 19-25 April | International Pectinid Workshop | Portland, ME 14 July | The Beaches Conference | Wells, ME Ongoing | Lobstering & The Maine Coast | Maine Maritime Museum
Maine Sea Grant College Program | 5784 York Complex Building 6 | The University of Maine | Orono, ME 04469
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